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Live From Indonesia

February 2, 2013

A computer monitor in the lab of deep-sea biologist Tim Shank displays images and live video from the INDEX 2010 expedition. The mission to explore the depths and diversity of Indonesian waters involved an international team of scientists working both at sea and by teleprescence in Exploration Command Centers ashore. The organism in the large picture is a deep-sea coral from the genus Paragorgia. Shank and Santiago Herrera, a PhD candidate in Shank’s lab, have been investigating ancient deep-water coral migration patterns from various seamounts. Their latest study focused on the genetic diversity of one species of coral—Paragorga arborea, also known as bubblegum coral.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)